I first encountered Spearmen too, but it seems the level of barbarian activity has been drastically lowered. Perhaps it's because I played on standard for this game(usually I play on large), but still, I only saw 1 Orc barbarian approaching my borders, and he even turned back again. I did find a barbarian settlement though.
Frequency of animals and monsters seem to be fine, but actual barbarians were few and far between.